Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1543

The Star that Winked

John Goodricke’s observations of Algol won him the Copley Medal while still in his teens, despite his disability.

1544

The Story of Handel’s ‘Water Music’

Handel’s German boss fired the composer for spending all his time in London. When they met again, it was... rather awkward.

1545

The Story of ‘Messiah’

The first thing George Frideric Handel’s oratorio ‘Messiah’ did was to set a hundred and forty-two prisoners free.

1546

The Story of ‘Oliver Twist’

Fate and a vicious professional thief named Fagin conspire to trap orphan Oliver Twist into a life of crime.

1547

The Tale of Beggar’s Bridge

The proof of Thomas Ferres’s rags-to-riches tale is quite literally written in stone, but popular lore adds some tantalising and romantic detail.

1548

The Tea-Cup Revolutionary

Josiah Wedgwood, a village potter whose disability meant he could not use a potter’s wheel, brought about a quiet revolution in English society.